Hartford teenager who died of injuries in quadruple shooting was active in anti-violence program

Candles burn next to empty liquor bottles outside 80 Edgewood St., in memory of 17-year-old Usher Hanns, who was fatally wounded at the site in a Sunday shooting. Hanns, who was shot in the head, succumbed to his injuries Wednesday. (Rebecca Lurye)

The Hartford teenager fatally wounded in a weekend quadruple shooting in Hartford’s North End was known for his dedication to Hartford’s Proud Drill, Drum and Dance Corp.

The violence prevention program gave 17-year-old Usher Hanns an outlet for his charm and dance moves, which he’d break out for any occasion and to any song, said drill team founder Terry Starks, who previously took Usher into her Mansfield Street home for about a year.

Advertisement

“He loved to dance, like the really smooth dancing — he was a ladies’ man,” Starks joked Thursday.

His involvement in the group did not completely keep Usher out of trouble, though, and Starks wants to see more support for kids like him, who are trying to start down a better path despite difficulties at home, at school or with the law.

“This is a major problem and it’s not by coincidence,” Starks said of Hartford’s violence. “But if people don’t start working together, then change is never gonna come. And you need to listen to the little kids.''

“These kids have different minds,” the 48-year-old said. “They’re growing up faster and they desire more, so you have to meet them at their level. Let them do what they want to do, then you can get them to do what they need to do.”

Usher died early Wednesday evening of his injuries from a Sunday shooting at 80 Edgewood St., just off Albany Avenue, that also wounded a 29-year-old man in the leg, a 26-year-old in the ankle and a 17-year-old in the hand, police say.

Usher was shot in the head. It was the 20th homicide of the year, and the second death in recent months to strike the drill team. Dahaiza Stewart, a 21-year-old Hartford woman killed in a two-car crash on Main Street in June, was also a member of the program, Stark said.

The team is holding its fifth annual Stomp the Violence event in both of their memories on Sept. 21, at Dillon Stadium. Starks wishes they could be there instead, getting recognition for their creativity and skill, for the competitions and battles they’ve won, and the anti-violence work they promoted in the community.

“All of this positive stuff kids were doing never got no recognition,” Starks said of Usher, Stewart and other young, Hartford victims. “That really takes them to die or have guns in their hands for anybody to acknowledge what they were doing.”

Sunday’s shooting happened about 9:20 p.m. Police said the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system picked up 12 rounds of gunfire.

All four were outside enjoying the pleasant weather the night before a holiday, Cicero said Wednesday.

Asked if the shooting was a drive-by, Cicero said he didn’t know. The investigation is ongoing.

“We’re getting different accounts. So I can’t comment on that specifically.”

Counselors will be on hand at New Visions alternative high school and Weaver High School, the schools Usher attended last year and was enrolled in this year, according to Hartford Public Schools and Manny Maldonado, a youth specialist with the Hartford Police Department.

Counselors also will visit Bulkeley High School, and Starks said they will attend her drill team’s practice on Monday to get kids talking about the loss and the violence.

“Not only the kids who knew him were impacted,” she said. “Everybody was impacted by it. This scene is too familiar. Every day is something in Hartford, somebody getting shot, somebody getting killed, somebody getting stabbed or something.”

Starks and her husband, Duffy, had known Usher since about 2014, when the preteen showed up on their block and started watching as the drill team practiced drums and dancing in the street outside their house.

Usher and a few other new members started practicing by themselves, putting together their own drumline routine that they proudly performed for Starks for her birthday, She was so impressed that brought them to their first competition the next week in Philadelphia, where they placed fifth out of nearly 30 teams.

A week later, they left Hartford at 5 a.m. for another drill team event in New York, but this one was much bigger, with a dance competition and many more teams. As the night wore on, Starks began to accept that they wouldn’t place. And at 11 p.m., with the competition stretching on, she told the junior drill team it was time to pack up and go.